Police Officers Draw Guns During Unannounced ‘Active Shooter Drill’ At Elementary School

[RandySF]

Winter Haven, Fla. (CBS TAMPA) – Students, teachers and parents were taken by surprise after an “active shooter drill” brought the Winter Haven middle school into lockdown as armed police officers burst into classrooms with their weapons drawn.

Students at Jewett Middle Academy said they were terrified when police officers burst in the doors for a planned active shooter drill – but students and teachers are irked they were not told ahead of time.

Seventh-grader Lauren Marionneaux told WTVT-TV that when the officers burst into her class with an AR-15, she was in fear for her life.

“We actually thought that someone was going to come in there and kill us,” the station quoted her as saying.

But police say they conduct these drills for the absolute safety of the students.


http://tampa.cbslocal.com/2014/11/15/police-officers-draw-guns-during-unannounced-active-shooter-drill-at-elementary-school/

[valerief]

1. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, WTF is wrong with these people? They are absolutely insane! nt

[diabeticman]

2. My wife believes no cops should EVER be trusted. they all need to be fired and new trainings

should be installed.

[valerief]

5. They're getting these orders--this fucked up strategy--from on high.

It's another chapter from the .01%er's Oppression Handbook.

Today, any person with a core of decency and two neurons rubbing together wouldn't be a cop or a soldier, because those roles keep the oppressors in power.

[jwirr]

23. Home Land Security has taken the lead. In going so they have become the terrorist.

[Jenoch]

17. Firing all cops and "new trainings" is a terrible idea.

There are many experienced cops (the vast majority actually) who do their jobs well. Think of all of the active investigations going on right now. A lot of perps would certainly walk.

[ileus]

18. She of course knows new recruits would be those that have failed before.

[Iggo]

3. Yay, Cops!

They're the best!

[csziggy]

4. Wonder what would have happened if the teachers were armed?

As the NRA wants to be the case? This is stupid on so many levels, I just can't even think of what could have happened. I am so glad I don't have children to worry about.

[KarenS]

7. Excellent question. What would have happened, indeed? n/t

[blackspade]

13. Dead teachers....

[NickB79]

16. Dead or injured cops, more likely

I can't imagine the police had loaded magazines in those rifles.

[blackspade]

21. I have no doubt that they were loaded and ready for use.

[glinda]

6. Instilling fear ahead of time eh? Our police forces need to be investigated and reigned in.

[Rex]

8. It is important to instill the fear of authority early in life.

Sad.

[rudolph the red]

9. Ridiculous

I cannot believe that no one stood up and said that maybe this was a bad idea. People should lose their jobs over this.

[zeemike]

10. It is better to be feared than loved if you can't be both

And so they intend to be feared...and from a young age.
It is not just poor judgment, it's the plan.

[EEO]

11. What. The. Fuck. This is insane. It's not a fire drill.

Some of those kids are totally going to have PTSD. If I was a parent I would be on the news by now, contacting the police department, the Office of the Attorney General, etc. Luckily, I live in Rhode Island so this species of insanity doesn't happen.

[blackspade]

12. "But police say they conduct these drills for the absolute safety of the students. "

BULLSHIT!

This is designed to get young people used to the idea of militarized police intrusion.
It promotes fear and obedience.

This is fascism.

[Kber]

14. Thank you!

This is either insanely stupid or insanely evil.

[blackspade]

22. Those are not mutually exclusive.

Tragically.

[Initech]

15. Sigh another day in gun country.

[ReRe]

19. Florida:

Our first full-fledged top-to-bottom red KOCH/ALEC style Police State. 34.9% of registered Republicans voted and won about every office in sight. Expect more right wing antics out of the Sunshine State.

[freshwest]

20. During the Cuban missile crisis, they added to our weekly drills in elementary school.

Every Friday at noon, all over the city, the air raid sirens went off from many locations. At the school they showed us films of the bombing of Japan with all the death from radiation poisoning and told us how we'd meet the same fate when the Russian missiles based in Cuba came.

We had to get under our desk in the 'kiss your ass goodbye' pose when the sirens went off. Each of us were issued dogtags on necklaces with our name, age and religion on stamped into the stainless steel. We were told they'd be jammed between our teeth or toes to identify the corpses. Nice imagery, that.

They divided up the class from those who would be allowed to run home to die with our families and the rest of us they told we'd have to die at school. That had a big effect on me, as I was in the latter group. On any random day, I would leave for school and never see them again.

At times planes buzzed the school to make it more realistic. For our own good... About that time I decided the adults running the world were just fucking nuts.

To function, I realized the official belief were just parallel to my hopes for the future. You know, like those New Year's Resolutions. Others just retreated from reality, which I believe is what many are still doing right now.

No wonder we became hippies as we didn't think that we'd very live long and wanted to make the best of our time on Earth. Very much strawberry and the tiger thinking for some of us. I was never able to lose myself in dogma and escape the way that I see many do.

But overall, I think these kind of drills are much worse. What we were threatened with was impersonal, from people we didn't expect to interact with and couldn't see any more than we could the wind of a tornado, just live with the effects.

These drills should be for training first responders, not the victims. Between that and the bullshit in media, games and movies, kids are living a nightmare. I guess it was always going to be like this in some form or another. Just look at what is still going on in the world. There is no security for many people, there never was.